The Alchemical Secrets of Glastonbury Tor
by Ishtar Babilu Dingir
Since its starring role in Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening
ceremony, friends have been asking me about the magical significance of
Glastonbury Tor. Well, I don’t profess to know everything about the Tor. I
doubt there are many that do. But I do live here in Glastonbury and, as a
shaman, when I walk these lands, they reveal to me some of their secrets. And
so I can share with you what I know, and also the thoughts of those more expert
than me.
In a nutshell, Glastonbury Tor is a huge vortex of spiritual
and temporal power for these Isles of Wonder. Wnen Alfred the Great was trying
to recapture them back from the Vikings, in the 9th century, he was camped out
near here. But before that, as a child of just six, he had been sent to Rome to
learn the great arts and his curriculum would have included magical alchemy, as
this was practised by the monks of that time. And so it is my belief that
Alfred used the power of the Michael and Mary leylines, which intertwine in a
kind of etheric fertility dance to create the incredble vortic energies of
Glastonbury Tor, to change who held the power in the land. After signing a treaty with the Vikings, to consolidate his power, a series of campaigns by Edward Elder and his
sister, Aethelflaed, known as the Lady of the Mercians, swiftly saw off the
countrymen of Eric Bloodaxe and Ragnald son of Sygtrygg ~ and they haven’t been
back since!
Of course, it’s no great news that the
powers-behind-the-thrones use their knowledge of the occult to maintain their
position at the top of the pyramid. But that they have been doing so since the
9th century may be new. I’m not saying that this is necessarily a good or a bad
thing. It’s mainly those who haven’t shaken off their Christian conditioning
that are terrified of magic and automatically assume anyone using it must be
the devil in disguise. It’s just another way of wielding power ~ and the word
‘occult’ means ‘hidden’ because it is performed away from the prying eyes of
those who would wish to stop it, of whom there have been more than a few over
the past couple of thousand years. But it’s clear that whoever does rule world
affairs knows about the power of magical
ritual and ceremony on the psyches of the masses, which in itself is a kind of
alchemy that creates new life, or new realities, and this is also a form of
magic.
I was reminded of this during the Olympic Stadium scenes
which brought to life the dreams and nightmares of the children of Great Ormond
Street Hospital and alluded to the creation its main benefactor, J M Barrie,
Peter Pan ~ who I’m sure most have figured out is the great fertility god Pan,
rumours of who’s death have been greatly exaggerated. These same dreams were
also referred to when the words of Caliban from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, were
delivered by the actor Kenneth Branagh as he stood on the Olympic Glastonbury
Tor.
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again.
- Shakespeare’s The Tempest, III, ii
It has always been the role of the wandering storyteller, bard, minstrel or poet to broadcast to the masses, through drama, tales and music, the stories that kings and princes want us to dream, in order to shape our day-to-day realities. And in these difficult and dangerous times, it was obviously felt that there was a need for a new and freshly inspired story while also harking back to our roots, to give us a sense of continuity and connection. Whatever story we’re told, if it’s told well enough, we will take it into ourselves and make it our own, so that when questioned upon it later, we will defend it to the hilt as if we had thought of it ourselves. This is because the story enters into our deepest subconscious through a kind of alchemy.
